Power and politics in ' The Tempest '

Power and Politics are major topics in every subject. It can go from something as tiny as a story's theme to a humanity problem. We have all come across the great play called 'The Tempest ' by William Shakespeare.

The last play written by Shakespeare was ‘the tempest’. It was a grand play and the storyline was as intriguing as the other plays by him. I have read The Tempest quite a few times. A perfect classic to go back to but not until I did in-depth research on it that I understood the power and the politics displayed in its chapters. 

The power and politics are first showcased through Prospero as he tells his daughter about how he was the duke of Milan. Prospero is the main protagonist and has a strong personality. As we often find him in charge of things happening around as if he is in control of nature itself. 

The politics were played by Prospero’s brother Antonio and the king of Naples, Alonso. It is true that Prospero has been done wrong by snatching his dukedom but at some point, we also see that Antonio was able to do this greedy deed just because Prospero has given him the power to do so.

Let me elaborate on it. Prospero was studying magic and would often be busy reading books which lead to Antonio taking decisions on his behalf. Here we also see a sense of negligence towards the responsibility of running a kingdom. Somewhere, Prospero has given Antonio the power to pull this trick on him. 

The politics however doesn’t end there as later, Antonio seems to be encouraging Alonso’s younger brother, Sebastian to carry out an attempted murder. Here, there is a parallel of how Antonio snatched and rose up to his dukedom and encouraged Sebastian to do the same. However, their attempted murder is not successful as Ariel steps into the scene.

Throughout the play, Prospero is shown to be stronger than other characters. It all comes from his magic which grants him power over nature. He dominates his power over the spirit named Ariel and the witch’s son named Caliban.

The famous saying of ‘ knowledge is power is proven right here. Though Prospero has been taken away from his dukedom, he still has the knowledge from his books that helps him in the survival of him and his daughter on the island.

Though, Power and Politics is not the only theme of this play. I would like to discuss the other themes in this play in the next article.

I hope you enjoyed this article. See you in the next article!